


A Small Bit Of Happiness

by HaruBestGirl (PurpleDragon)



Series: Persona 5 G/t [1]
Category: Persona 5, The Borrowers - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, G/T, G/T - Freeform, Gen, Giant/Tiny, Hurt/Comfort, I swear this isn't kinky, Macro/Micro, later on, possibly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2019-08-11 00:16:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16465034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurpleDragon/pseuds/HaruBestGirl
Summary: Akira is a borrower, a minature human living hidden inside a cozy coffee shop. He has already made bad expieriences with humans finding out about him and has decided that this would never happen to him again. But when he finds himself trapped by the owner of the shop, instead of killing him the human makes him an unbelievable offer.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! It's been some time since I've actually written some fanfiction, so I'm a bit rusty and also not a native speaker (If you wanna beta for me please hmu ♥)  
> I won't make this longer than it has to be. Hope you'll enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Akira considered himself a master Borrower. He could scale any height, he could fit through every tiny nook, he could even open jars! But, he thought, his biggest achievement was finding a way to open and close a fridge. A feat that became a necessity after his forced relocation.

Akira looked up at the metal box as he climbed the counter next to it. Not only had he built a pulley that would open the air-sealed door, he even found a way to hide it from the human owner of the café. The borrower squeezed himself between two jars to get a grip on the twine he affixed there. Once he pulled it, another jar filled with to the brim with pickles fell from the top shelf. Its incredible speed was stopped by a different piece of threat and with a small hiss followed by a hum the fridge was opened. Akira turned off his improvisatory flashlight and quickly made his way into the chilly apparatus. He had some borrowing to do.

For Borrower standards, Akira took way too long for his raid on the fridge. But that was the best part of living in a café. Humans hardly ever came here at night, and when they did, it wasn’t usually this late. The borrower shouldered his heavy backpack again; it was filled with delicious treats that should last him roughly two weeks. As he exited the cold machine, Akira went through his mental list of things he’d still need. All that was left now were… napkins!

Closing the fridge was easier than opening it. The Borrower used some tape to glue another piece of string to the outside of the door and simply reeled it in. Afterwards he removed all traces of his doing. No Borrowers in sight!

Akira made his way towards the sitting boots on the other side of the room when something caught his eye. There, in the dark! It reflected his flashlight. He ran towards the unknown reflective hidden beneath the booth. It was… a small wooden plank with a metal frame on top. But most importantly, in between the metal frame was a fresh cube of cheese.

Akira’s mouth began watering. He couldn’t remember the last time he had actual cheese. Yet there it was, lying out in the open, waiting for him. For a split second Akira wondered if it was okay to take this. After all, Borrowers managed to survive this long without the humans’ knowledge because they only took what wouldn’t be missed. He ignored that thought as soon as it appeared. He’d only take the cheese, maybe not even all of it, and leave the wooden thing alone. During the day humans tended to often forget things here. The Borrower was sure that they’d come and get it tomorrow if it was important. But a small bit of cheese? Akira came to the selfish conclusion that nobody would miss it.

The cheese however, was not as easy to acquire as he thought; it seemed like it was glued to the metal contraption! A sound borrower would have realized that this could be a trap, and turn around immediately. Akira however, already taken by the sweet fantasy of this dairy treat, was determined. He pulled and pulled, but the little cube would not budge. It seemed like it was attached to a thin metal plate standing up from the wooden bottom. The borrower grabbed the cheese again and placed his foot on the plate to get some leverage.

His flashligh burst. The next thing he noticed was all the things he had borrowed so far this night being splattered around him. Suddenly he was lying on the board with something heavy pressing on his back. He was panicking and desperately grasping for air. Akira tried to get up but it was no use. He glanced over his shoulder and realized what held him down: A clamp-looking piece of metal was pressing tightly against his backpack, spilling its containments all over him. Judging by the force that knocked him down the sack probably saved his spine from getting broken in two.

It was still just past midnight. The borrower realized that he had the whole night to free himself. That or being stuck in this position for hours and having the human find him. No, Akira decided that it mustn’t come to that. He’d get out of here!

From the feeling of it, the clamp was secured right over his shoulder blades. It pressed down with such a force that he couldn’t even move his arms much. Still he tried to push up against it with all that he got. In the end, it was no use.

No matter how much he pushed and pulled, the clamp would not budge. If anything, it may have sled further towards his neck. That thought terrified Akira more than anything else. He tried to give it one more shot, but his legs wouldn’t move anymore. He gritted his teeth and tried to grab the edge of the wooden board, also to no use. Hours must have passed and Akira was exhausted. He realized that his vision started to fade. The borrower wanted to scream, to thrash, to slip out of the trap and curl himself into a ball in his hideout in the attic. But all he did was to lose conscience.

 

Akira awakened to the happy chime of the bell above the entryway. He was still trapped beneath the deadly clamp of the trap and immediately started to panic again. There were footsteps coming in his direction. Someone started humming. Akira recognized the voice of the human – it was the owner of the café!

The borrower craned his neck to look at the now lit up room. Huge legs moved past him and walked towards the small kitchen. Akira had no time to lose. He could maybe sneak past one human, but as soon as the café had opened there would be a lot more. He started franticly thrashing about, not caring about making noise anymore. To his surprise it seemed to work. He managed to wiggle one of his arms out of the slings of the backpack. Using said arm he grabbed the edge of the wooden board and pushed his shoulder against the clamp, kicking with his legs all the while. His second arm came free and he slowly crawled out of the trap. He had to escape! He had to flee! He had to-

The usually dim lighting of the room was blocked by a massive shadow. Akira stopped in his motions to look over his shoulder again. The human was crouched down in front of the boot. He extended his giant hand towards the trapped borrower.

Said borrower began to kick and flail and scream as the owner lifted the trap up in his hand. He retrieved it out from under the boot and rose up to his full height, holding the contraption up to his face.

“What the hell?! “

 

Sojiro was tired. There were days when he didn’t want to open Leblanc at all and instead do as Futaba did and stay in his room all day. But, he was an adult, and he had a teenage girl to take care of. And bills.

He unlocked the door and was greeted by the sound of the small bell inside the café. Slowly he made his way over to the bar. The man knew his daily routine by hearth. Clean the stove, turn on the coffee machine, dust the shelves- What was that?

Sojiro could swear he just heard a weird sound. Some kind of scratching? He was just about to dismiss it as imagination when he heard it again. There, it was coming from the booth right across the kitchen. His eyesight wasn’t the best, but Sojiro could swear that there was movement down there. Then he remembered. The mouse trap!

To be honest, Sojiro didn’t expect that there would actually be any vermin in his café. What kind of mouse was able to open a fridge after all? But there was definitely something caught in there. Poor thing. Sojiro didn’t care for any pests that entered his business, but he did buy these traps to give them a quick and mostly painless death. Well, it seemed like he had to finish the job himself.

The human crouched down in front of the table and his knees protested, which made him feel older than he was, thank you very much. He slowly reached for the small apparatus, careful to not touch the dying critter. The last thing he needed was getting bit by it and incubating some funny disease. Just because he sometimes didn’t want to work didn’t mean he was keen on the health office closing the place. But something was off.

The animal started screaming and kicking him, which wasn’t that surprising. What caught Sojiro off guard was that it didn’t sound like an animal. It sounded like a- No, that was impossible.

He managed to retrieve the mouse trap and stand up straight again. Holding it up to his face, Sojiro wanted to inspect what exactly had crawled inside his business when he wasn’t there. And if he had been able to move at all, he would have let go of it like a hot iron. Caught in the trap was no mouse, no rat, but a small human.

What kind of mouse could open a fridge?

One that lacked the teeth and the tail but had thumbs and wore clothes apparently.

His head spun. This couldn’t be real. He had watched too many dumb fantasy shows with Futaba.

“What the hell?!” he gasped.

But no, there he was. An actual human half the size of his hand. For a few seconds they both just stared at each other with wide eyes, none of them made a move. Sojiro realized that he was young, maybe in his late teens. His hair was black and curly, and stood up in all directions. He was wearing a plain shirt and trousers, and on his back was what looked like a backpack. It was dirty and full of stains; whatever was inside of it had been squished by the trap. Wait was that food? That brought Sojiro back to his senses. “Are you stealing from me?” he demanded to know, and he realized that his voice sounded angrier than he intended.

That however brought the kid back to reality too and he began to thrash around, seemingly trying to escape his confinements. He grunted and groaned but seemed to be panicking too much to actually get out of it. “Hey hold on!” Sojiro exclaimed and instinctively walked behind the bar before he carefully set the trap down on the surface. “I’m going to let you out of there, okay?” he said with a soft tone in his voice.

The tiny person looked up to him with a look of disbelief, but he nodded, and seemingly relaxed. Sojiro’s hands looked enormous as he carefully examined the mechanism. He could feel the kid quiver where they came in contact with him. After about a minute, Sojiro was confident that he was able to open it without hurting the boy. Cautiously his nails squeezed in under the metal clamp and with a bit of force he separated it from the body below. Said body made a run for it as soon as he was free.

 

Akira had never been more scared in his life. He’d been told to not interact with humans from the moment of his birth. And yet there he was, literally making skin contact to one. He could only imagine what terrible things the human would do to him. Maybe mount him to the wall like a dead moth, or throw him into the big pot of curry? Or maybe he’d even keep Akira as a pet… Akira was hyperventilating by now. His mind was feeding him with horror fantasies of his imminent future. The borrower’s flight instinct was literally screaming at him, and his limbs fought their useless battle against the trap once more. The human said something and began to move quickly. He was set down on the shop counter, the man now looming over him. His voice sounded again, but this time in a much calmer tone. “I’m going to let you out of there, okay?”

Akira couldn’t believe his ears. Let him go? He stared at the human with wide eyes before he slowly nodded. There was no way the human was telling the truth right? Akira decided to not take the chance. As soon as he had the chance he’d bolt out of the human’s vicinity and pack his things to look for a new place to life. There were lots of nooks and crannies where borrowers could seek shelter.

The human’s enormous hands reached towards him again, but this time they carefully caressed the device, most likely trying to get a feel for it and how to pry it open. Akira did his best to lie still, even as the human’s fingers brushed against his bare skin. It was weird, feeling the man’s rough hands ghost all over him, and he hoped to never experience this sort of thing ever again. Finally he seemed to have found a way to open the mechanism, wedging his fingers underneath the clamp and lifting it up.

Akira wasted no time. The moment he felt that restricting weight lift from his shoulders he made a run for it. At first he simply ran into the direction he was heading, further along the surface of the bar, but the human reacted much faster than he expected. He yelled in surprise and a giant palm rushed down in front of the borrower. He made a heel turn and heard the human scream again. In front of Akira he saw that now the human’s other hand was caught in the painful embrace of the mouse trap. The human pulled both his arms towards his chest and hissed in pain, and Akira saw his chance. It was dangerous, but he was confident that he could make a jump from this height. The edge was approaching fast and Akira was ready.

“Oh no, you don’t!” he heard the human grunt and something slammed on top of him. Akira was suddenly surrounded by a transparent wall… Did the human put a glass on top of him?! He repeatedly slammed his whole body against the smooth surface, but it was no use. The human was in the meantime occupied with freeing his own hand. Apparently that was a lot harder to accomplish with only one of those. It took him a few times and he yelped some curse words, but he finally got it off and immediately threw the cursed thing away. The human shook his hand a few times, and stretched his fingers. Then he looked down on Akira.

The borrower was still trying to tackle the glass, but to no avail. No matter how much force he put into it, it wouldn’t budge. Suddenly the human was closer again. Akira instinctively pressed his back against the glass wall, in fear of what was to come next. The man leaned down and grabbed the glass by its top, and took a good look at Akira. “Don’t run off, okay?” he commanded. He slowly lifted the glass off the counter. Akira was ready to dart away, but a big, meaty palm blocked his view.

“I told you to not do that, didn’t I?” The fingers slightly curled in and surrounded the borrower from 3 sides. He couldn't stand it anymore. Akira collapsed in front of the man and curled into a ball. A whimper left his throat. He was going to die here, wasn’t he? The human showed no sign of letting him go. No matter how fast he ran, there simply was no escape. Tears started to build in his eyes.

“Hey now, calm down please.” He looked up. The human had bent down to him and his face was at the same level as the countertop now. “Sorry if I scared you. Are you alright?” Akira thought to see genuine concern in his eyes. He appreciated that the man wasn’t towering over him anymore, but having the other ones face so close to him didn’t calm him that much.

“Please,” he pleaded to the human, “just let me go.”

The human seemed surprised to hear his voice. He adjusted his body and rubbed his other hand over the back of his head. “Sorry, but I can’t exactly let you just freely run around my shop. The customers will come soon, too.”

Akira despaired. “What are you going to do with me?”

 

Sojiro honestly had no idea how to answer that. What _was_ he going to do with a tiny person he found in a mousetrap? He clearly couldn’t just let him run around his shop; the kid could seriously hurt himself. He also seemed to be terrified of him. “Well, I…” he tried to force his brain to form a coherent sentence. Nothing. The man sighed in defeat. “Why don’t you tell me about yourself first?”

The boy eyed him warily. He pulled his knees closer to his body. “Why?” he finally asked.

Sojiro let out a heavy breath. “I mean…” he thought that ever since Futaba he had learned how to handle teenagers, but it appeared he was wrong. “Let’s start with names, okay? I’m Sojiro Sakura.” He pointed first at himself, then at the boy. “What’s your name?”

The tiny person didn’t answer at first, and Sojiro was ready to resign. Then he heard a faint voice. He looked at the kid again. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

“I… I said my name’s Akira.” Akira didn’t make eye contact while talking to him. But he talked at least. Sojiro was willing to count that as a success.

“Akira, hm” he mused, “That’s a nice name. I appreciate your honesty.” Sojiro tried his best to appear as friendly and nonthreatening as possible, given the circumstance. It didn’t seem to work right away, as Akira still wouldn’t look directly at him. “And how old are you, Akira-kun?” the man tried to dig deeper. “You don’t look that old.”

Again it took the boy some time to give him an answer. “Sixteen,” he murmured.

Sojiro glanced over the kid again. Yeah that would fit. He was still surprised at that answer. “So you- Wait, what are you exactly?” Sojiro couldn’t say that he believed in the supernatural, but a person so small he could fit them in one hand was in no way normal. In his head he went through all possible folktales that he knew of, which weren’t many, that contained some sort of small creature. Koropokkuru were the first he thought of. Or maybe Lilliputians, from Gulliver’s Travels? “Are you some kind of spirit? Or did you get shrunken?” Immediately after the word left his mouth he realized that he started to sound like Futaba. Great.

Akira finally looked at him, although in confusion. He opened his mouth to say something, but instantly closed it again. Sojiro wondered if he had managed to make himself look crazy in front of the boy. So far his day did not start well. He really should have stayed in bed.

“I, uhm…” Akira’s voice brought Sojiro back into reality. His view concentrated on the boy again. “I’m a Borrower.”

“I see.” The man was lost like never before. A Borrower. Of course. “And what exactly is a ‘Borrower’?”

“Well, uh we… How should I explain it?” he murmured. “We… borrow things from humans. Small things they – uh, you wouldn’t notice.” His eyes glanced into the distance for a second before focusing on the human in front of him again.

Sojiro turned his head to examine the borrower’s line of sight and spotted the tiny bag lying on the other end of the bar counter. He furrowed his brows. With one hand he reached over to it while still cupping the small boy with the other one. Sojiro felt really bad terrifying him like that, but he still wasn’t sure Akira wouldn’t try to make a run for it again. He was set on talking this out like normal, civilized people do. Carefully he picked up the tiny bag. It appeared to be torn somewhere, as grains of rice fell out of it. Sojiro inspected the containments. From what he could gather there appeared to be mostly food items; except for the rice there were also a squashed cocktail tomato, two coffee beans, a broken spiced biscuit and a bent pin. Thinking back, the backpack was probably the only thing that prevented the trap to break the kid in half.

“So, like this?” He turned his head towards the borrower again. The boy turned even paler than before, but nodded rapidly. “You know, the usual meaning of the word 'borrowing' would mean that you intent to give it back someday.”

Akira’s eyes went wide at that statement. He instinctively tried to crawl backwards, but all he got was Sojiro’s palm pressing against his back. “It-it’s,” he stammered, “just small things. If it weren’t for that trap you wouldn’t even know that they were gone, o-or that I live here!”

“Wait, you live here?!”

Akira slapped his hands over his mouth. Sojiro sighed. Back to square one.

“Listen, I’m not mad, okay? But you just can’t live here anymore. If some health inspector even suspects that I have vermin they'll close this place right up and smoke you out.” Akira strangely seemed to take that pretty well.

“I… usually when humans only suspect that we exist we immediately move places,” the boy informed him, “so I wasn’t really planning on staying here anyways. If… uh, if you’ll let me go.”

Sojiro could hear the fear in the borrower’s voice at that last part. Poor kid had been through a lot. Although he was still curious about the whole Borrower ordeal, Sojiro decided that his responsibility as the owner of a food-serving business was fulfilled. He let go of the boy and rose up to his full height again. “Alright,” he said as he was handing Akira the torn backpack, “in that case you’re free to go. You should just tell your parents that living at a restaurant isn’t a good idea, okay?”

Akira got up on his feet. He still seemed a bit wary, but nevertheless accepted the piece of fabric. “I’m not with my parents, I live alone” he said, while checking the remaining items in the bag. From somewhere he pulled out a piece of cable with what looked like a small broken lightbulb attached. The borrower sighed.

That ringed Sojiro’s alarm bells. "Wait what?” he exclaimed. The borrower might be a teenager, but he had to have someone taking care of him, right? Sojiro couldn’t imagine the small boy all alone in such a big world. “What do you mean you're not with your parents?”

Akira looked down on his backpack somberly. _Shit_ , Sojiro thought. “You, uh,” he began forming a sentence while absently scratching his beard, “You don’t have to tell me though.” He involuntarily imagined all sorts of ways for a small person like the black haired boy to die. No wonder he was terribly afraid of the giant man who booby trapped his home. Akira however, did speak up again.

“No, it’s okay.” He looked up at Sojiro again, although averting his eyes. “They separated from me the last time we moved because I… I was the reason the humans found out about us.” Akira let out that last part with a deep sigh. He was fumbling his thumbs and looked up at the man in front of him, apparently waiting for a reaction.

Sojiro, in the meantime, let his brain dissect these words very thoroughly. Finally he came to a conclusion. “Your parents... kicked you out?” he almost didn’t want to say it out loud. Akira opened his mouth, but no words came out of it. Slowly, he nodded. Anger flared up inside of the older man’s chest. Images of Futaba’s uncle, the bastard, flashed before his eyes. He couldn’t believe that even Akira, small and helpless, had to deal with having shitty adults for a family. So Sojiro came to a conclusion.

“That is-“ _Indoor voice, Sakura!_ “-inexcusable!” Akira now stared at him, fully aware of the man’s anger, but still confused. Sojiro kneeled down in front of the teen again. “Listen, I’m not going to do the shame shit your parents did, okay? Even though I can’t under any circumstances let you live in Leblanc anymore either.” He could feel the cogwheels turn in his head while trying to find a solution of what to do with the boy. “Alright. Change of plans, you’re small, you don’t take up much space or need much food,” he licked his lips; he hadn’t even noticed how dry they had become, “why don’t you live at my place?”

 

Akira’s immediate instinct was to decline the offer. If this even was one. A human consciously living with a borrower? That was insane and shady as hell! He shook his head; this had to be a trap of some sort! “I’ll, I’ll manage, alright?” he tried to convince the human. “I’ve been doing fine for the last 3 months, until, uh, today.” His cheeks turned hot, as the shame settled in his stomach. The borrower realized that this was now the second time in a row he had been discovered by humans. _Maybe_ , he thought, _I’m a failure of a borrower._

Sojiro leaned his arms on the countertop, far enough away from the borrower. “Okay, but you don’t have to, do you?” These words hit Akira right in the chest. “Besides, I already know about you and am fine with it, so you wouldn’t have to steal stuff in the middle of the night again. Although if you want to I won’t stop you.”

The offer was almost too good to be true. Humans weren’t _fine_ with borrowers. He had been told that over and over in his life. That they had to hide or else the humans would come and take them away. According to his parents they used to know borrowers that fell into human clutches and were never seen again. Something was up.

“I’ve been taught that humans usually don’t accept us living alongside them.” Akira was scared, but still proud of the fact that his voice didn’t shake. “So why would you? What keeps you from just putting me in a cage or killing me as soon as I let my guard down?” Voicing his fears didn’t prevent him from picturing them.

“If I wanted to do any of those things I would’ve done them already, wouldn’t I?” The human said. Although he was right, that did not calm Akira down. Sojiro glanced at him briefly before letting out a deep sigh. “To tell the truth, you remind me of someone. A young girl I know who also had to deal with a shitty family after her mom died. Her relatives said they would take care of her, but in the end she was shoved from one person to the next because they couldn’t handle that she’s a bit odd.” He looked straight into Akira’s eyes, and the teen could swear that there was a tear in his. “I just don’t want what happened to her to repeat with you.”

Akira was still not sure what to do. Sojiro seemed genuine, and the fact that he had started a conversation with Akira instead of crushing him with his fists did support his case. He never heard of humans talking to borrowers, so maybe the man was just odd. He had one last question before making his decision. “This girl, does she live with you?”

Sojiro seemed surprised by that question. “Yes. Her name is Futaba. You don’t have to show yourself to her if you don’t want though. I won’t say anything either.” He seemed honest.

“Alright.” Akira had made up his mind. “I’m coming with you, under two conditions. One, you let me pack some things I want to take with me first, and second, as soon as we reach your home you’ll let me go.”

Sojiro nodded. “Sounds good. I have to prepare the shop now anyways, so you’ll have time until the evening to get your stuff.” He rose up to his full height again.

Akira hadn’t realized that he had held his breath and quickly exhaled relieved. This was still madness, but it seemed to work well. He shouldered what was left of his backpack and looked for a way down.

“Oh! Do you need help?” Sojiro laid his hand on the counter in front of him, palm up, and Akira jumped back in fear. Right. He would have to get used to the human doing things around him. The palm still lay in front of him and the man seemed to wait for something.

“What are you doing?” Akira asked him curiously. Was this a human custom he hadn’t heard of?

“I thought that you need help to get down to the bottom again.” He answered, with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. Akira just stared at him. Was the human really suggesting for him to… climb on top of his palm?

Although he did have a point. There was a small hole in the wall on the other end of the room from which he could make his way up to his hideout in the attic of the café. Also he was out of rope to make a decent this big. Akira breathed in and collected all his courage before warily making his way towards the human’s hand.

At first he tried to stay on his legs, but the fleshy surface was too soft and lumpy for him to hold his balance once the appendage started moving, so Akira settled down to sit on it instead. It was a very strange feeling. He could faintly feel the blood pumping underneath the various coats of flesh and skin. It was kind of unsettling.

The experience didn’t last long. Sooner than expected the human’s hand reached the floor and Akira quickly hopped off. Seeing the human from the top of the bar was already scary, but standing right at his feet almost triggered Akira’s fight-or-flight response. He barely reached the man’s ankles!

Sojiro kneeled down to him, which did calm the borrower a little. “I usually close up shop at around 7pm. Think you can make it till then?”

Akira nodded. He knew the exact times of when the human came and left, but didn’t feel like he had to tell him that. “I just have one more thing.” He said shyly.

The man leaned in to hear him better. “What is it?”

“Can you turn around?” Even though he believed in the human’s good intentions, he still didn’t want him to know of his escape route. “It’s just a safety habit.”

Sojiro looked a bit baffled but nodded. He got up and turned towards the entryway of the café. “Is this alright?”

Akira made his way across the tiled floor. Without a word he disappeared into the dark hole in the wall.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira embarks on a journey through the fascinating world of modern Tokyo.  
> Sojiro has problems with his parenting methods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not happy with some of this, but after more than half a year I'm tired of chewing on this chapter alone.

Akira didn’t turn around as he disappeared into the dark hole in the wall. He didn’t make a sound, didn’t leave any trace that he ever had been there. Not that it mattered anymore.

The human had seen him. The second one in a row. But his reaction was the polar opposite of the bald man that had had threatened his family.

Sojiro… seemed like he really was nice. As if he really cared about Akira. That threw him off a lot. In this half of an hour that human had ended up to show more compassion towards him than his parents ever did in his entire life, and Akira didn’t know how to deal with this.

He contemplated all of this as he climbed upwards through the empty parts of the café walls. He mostly relied on cables and pipes, using what was left of his string to assist him. It was no easy task, especially in complete darkness. The torn backpack with his broken flashlight lay discarded on the bottom of the hole. No matter his choice, Akira knew he’d have to make a new one.

Surprisingly, he reached the upper floor without a scratch. Or rather, without any additional scratches. He had started to feel the consequences of spending a night unconsciously trapped with half his body on the floor and the other half on a bed of wood and wire. His back felt sore and his arms hurt. Not to mention the headache building up. Akira would love the luxury of getting at least a few hours of sleep on a somewhat soft bed, but neither his situation nor his state of mind allowed him that. He was too stressed out from the encounter with the human and had to get ready packing his things. He needed a new backpack and a flashlight. Then he also had to sort out what to take with him and what to leave behind.

The backpack issue was solved quickly. He had some spare fabric lying around to sew into shape. The flashlight however, was impossible. Akira had only had that one lightbulb and the cable work had been complicated too. However, he did have a few spare matches that could work as a torch.

Sorting out his belongings however, was hard. He had grown attached to a lot of the trinkets he had collected over the last few months. The coin from his first heist in the new place. The golden ring with the huge jewel. He supposed he could at least take the jade pearl and the translucent plastic sword with him. And should – he still hadn’t made up his mind – he really take on the human’s offer, shouldn’t the borrower give him a gift? He was pretty sure that was human custom, right?

Contemplating this, the afternoon went by and evening came. Akira was done with his preparations. He had thought that as soon as he’d be done he would head out immediately, leaving Leblanc and Sojiro behind forever. Apparently, Akira didn’t know himself that well.

At first, it wasn’t the right time. The sun is still out, a voice whispered in his head, it’s too dangerous!  
So he waited till sunset. He still had about an hour until the human would usually close. There was again, a voice objecting his flight instinct. It’s not safe outside at night! There are dangerous predators that lurk in the dark! Akira lay down on his bed again, begrudgingly. He decided that the voice inside of his head was smart, but an idiot.

_The human’s safety is promising._

“It’s against everything I’ve ever learned. Against the Borrower instinct.”

_Sometimes we have to take risks to survive._

“And what do you call all this hesitation then?”

_Self-preservation._

“What if he breaks his promise? What if he wants to harm me?”

_He already had the chance to do so and did not take it._

Akira rolled to his side, sighing. Arguing with himself wouldn’t help him out. He just spun around in circles of what-ifs for hours. It’s almost time.  
Akira had made a choice.

 

It had taken Sojiro hours to get that last pesky customer to leave (or at least it had felt like that). True, the man was a regular, but that didn’t mean he had a right to stay after closing time. Especially not after the events of this morning.

Sojiro had been antsy and distracted all day long. The little figure had disappeared so fast he wasn’t even sure if it was all just Sojiro’s fantasy. And yet there was unmistakable proof of Akira’s existence: the mousetrap, banished to the shadows of the unlit kitchen; Sojiro’s right ring finger, that still ached from the damned contraption; and after accidentally knocking down a jar of coffee beans he discovered a clever little mechanism that would allow even a borrower to open the airtight door of the refrigerator. Sojiro had to hand it to the kid, he sure was smart for his size.

With a sigh the man locked the glass door and flipped the wooden sign. Hopefully Akira hadn’t changed his mind about his offer. Only one way to find out…

“Akira? You can come out now. We’re alone.”

Minutes passed. There was no sound inside the café but the ticking of the clock on the wall as Sojiro waited for any sign of the borrower. He scanned every dark corner he could find for signs of the boy. Nothing. Sadness filled his heart. Guess he really left.  
Just as Sojiro was ready to give up on the boy and pack his things, he heard a noise coming from the kitchen. As he turned around he watched as Akira came out of a hole behind his spice rack. In one hand he held a burning match, in the other one a five-yen-coin. On his back was what looked like a self-made backpack, roughly twice the size of the one destroyed this morning. Sojiro let out a relieved sigh. “I almost thought you changed your mind.”

Akira looked directly at him at that. Ironically it seemed like the borrower hadn’t noticed the human until now. Once again he was paralyzed by the sight of the huge being in front of him, but only for a moment. He shook the match in his hand until it went out before hopping onto the kitchen counter. “To be honest,” he began, “I thought so too. Spent the entire afternoon arguing with myself… but I think it’s for the best.”

A warm smile formed of Sojiro’s face. “I’m glad you do. Thank you for trusting me, Akira.”

The borrower looked away at this remark. His entire body tensed.

“Is something wrong?” Sojiro asked concerned.

The teen hesitated. “I…” he turned around to look at the human again. “I don’t trust you. Fully. Not yet.”

Sojiro had to admit that this was a surprise to him. Although if you think about it… “I see. Yet you still take up on my offer?”

The borrower nodded and pointed the coin in his direction. “As a thank-you-gift.” He murmured.

“Oh!” Sojiro scratched the back of his head. “Uh, thanks, but you didn’t need to.” He hesitantly reached for the small coin. As he held it in between his fingers he realized it seemed to be only a few years old at best. The surface was still very shiny and showed few scratches and kinks.

“I found it the first night I went borrowing here, so it's more like I'm giving it back.”

Sojiro face held a puzzled look. “It’s okay, you can keep it if you like it.”

The borrower shook his head. “No, I couldn’t have taken it with me otherwise. You can keep it.”

The human glanced at the coin once again before pocketing it. “Alright then,” he said, “you ready to go then?”

 

Akira hesitated. He wasn’t. He knew that judging from both borrower and human standards he couldn’t stay here anymore, but the coffee shop had grown on him. With a bit of sorrow he took in the interior of the shop one last time. Somehow in only a few months this building had felt more like home to the teen than the place he had lived before for all his life. 

“Can you give me a moment?” he asked without looking at the owner.

“Sure.”

Akira took off the new backpack and slowly walked along the edge of the shelf. His right hand caressed the various glass bottles full with different spices. Did Sojiro also have those at his home?

“You know, the first time I tried borrowing spices, I landed face first in some bright yellow powder. It was terrible I thought I would die.” Akira chuckled. He could still feel the sting of it clogging up his nose.

Sojiro seemed surprised. “You are using spices? As in, cooking?”

Akira turned back towards him. “Sure.” A grin formed on his face. “What, you thought we’re only living off raw food?”

“Sort of, yes.” The human admitted. “In that case I can show you how to make my special curry. You will love it.”

Akira was interested, to say the least. “You mean the one you always make here? It does smell delicious.” He picked up his backpack again. “Let’s go.”

Sojiro stared at him perplexed. “That was a quick change of heart.”

“I know.” Akira felt that the longer he stayed, the harder it would be to leave, one way or another. Sometimes a clean cut was the best course of action. “So how far away is your home?”

“Oh, it’s actually just around the corner. Two minutes by foot basically.”

Akira nodded. He walked back to where he left his backpack and shouldered it again.  
Sojiro turned around and grabbed an oval-shaped wicker basket. “Here,” he said as he placed it on the surface and turned it sideways, “climb in so no one can see you.”

Akira inspected the container warily. He had seen the man carry fruit and vegetables in it once or twice, when he had occasionally spied on the café. The wooden material was solid, although bumpy, under his small feet. He crawled all the way into the farthest corner.

“I’m going to flip it now.” Sojiro informed him. Akira didn’t fully register it before the ground suddenly turned under his feet and he fell on his nose with a yelp. The human’s enormous face appeared in the opening above him. “I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” The borrower replied as he got up on his feet and put his backpack next to him. “Ready to go.”  
The shaking of the basket wasn’t as bad as he expected. It was by far better than the human’s hands. As the man began to move Akira realized that he had been right. From five sides the wicker basket was completely solid. No human would see him, unless they were directly above him. That still posed somewhat of a threat, but he was content with it. 

The bell above the door rang once again as the human and his small passenger exited the building. Suddenly there was noise where before there was only silence. Akira could hear the chatter of people and the noise of cars in the distance, and he realized that the basket wasn’t as opaque as he had thought.

There were tiny holes in between the weaves, just big enough for the borrower to glance through.

What he saw was breathtaking. The evening streets were lit by lanterns and neon signs. There were humans everywhere he looked. He had never seen so many at one place! And none of them even knew he was there. 

As Sojiro walked by them, Akira observed the giants. Most of them were minding their own business, just passing by or talking to each other. Sojiro greeted a woman who was with a child and a small dog, before turning to the right. After a few more steps he stopped again. The basket shifted and Akira heard a metallic clinking sound. The human opened the fence gate and then the front door. The door closed behind them and the world became silent once again.

 

Sojiro turned on the light and carefully slipped out of his shoes and into some slippers. He quickly checked on the borrower, who leaned against the woven walls and looked up to him. He seemed fine. “I’ll let you out in the kitchen.” Sojiro said, before looking around the corner and up the stairwell. “Futaba? I’m home!”

No reaction. Not that Sojiro had expected one. Lately the girl had been even more anti-social than usual. She hid herself away in her room, apparently only coming out when her guardian was gone. Sojiro had no idea how to handle this behavior. With a sigh he turned away and made his way towards the kitchen. 

Maybe he should give Akira a tour? Though he pondered that the kid had to be tired from all the stress he suffered today. Sojiro still hadn’t planned out exactly how to accommodate the borrower. A box perhaps? On the other hand, the kid might feel trapped.

Sunken deeply into his thoughts, the man entered the kitchen and dining area. The room was mostly held in white, with dark wooden cabinets and green ornaments on the opposite wall. Sojiro steered to the left where a stove and a long counter stood. He placed the basket on the surface right next to the fridge. “I’m going to flip it” he warned the kid, but gave him a few seconds to react before going through with it. 

This time, Akira easily walked out of the basket on two feet, his backpack in one hand and the oversized matchbox in the other. He took a quick glance at his new environment as Sojiro said, “Welcome to the Sakura residence.”

The kid placed his belongings on the surface below him and closer examined his surroundings. There was the chrome fridge on his left, a bread box in white was right in front of him. On the wall were various knives attached to a magnetic rail and next to them, the stove. Akira looked up. The cabinets above him cast a slight shadow. Sojiro watched as the borrower made his way across the stove (and he quickly checked that it was turned off). The kid acted a bit weird. He seemed to completely ignore him in favor of surveying the area. Although, Sojiro thought that he probably couldn’t blame him. After all, he used to live on his own in a giant world, having to survive every new day. The habits he acquired were most likely not hard to shake off.

Sojiro turned away to look for a container that could pose as a temporary home for Akira. He crouched and looked into one of the cabinets. A pot wouldn’t do Akira any good. He needed something he could easily access and that was non-transparent. Sojiro rose up to see if he could spare some cardboard boxes in the upper cabinets. Akira was trying pulling an outlet from the wall-

Akira was WHAT?

Sojiro flipped over in an instant. “What are you doing?” He tried not to yell. Tried.

Akira flinched and turned towards him, hands still on the white plastic. “The screws on this are pretty loose and I think there’s empty space behind it that I can access.”

Sojiro simply stared at him. His brain took some time to process that. “You want-“ he manually licked his dry lips- “You want to break an electricity outlet to go into the walls?”

“Yes?”

He took a deep breath before carefully shoving the boy away with one hand. Of course the other one protested but Sojiro cupped his second hand behind him, kneeled down and looked him directly in the eyes. “No. Not going to happen.”

Akira recoiled from the man’s fingers and looked at him in shock. “You said you’d let me go when I come with you. You promised!”

“Yes, but that didn’t mean that you’d have to live inside my walls like some kind of squirrel!”

“Well where else am I supposed to live?”

By now both of them were screaming at each other. Subconsciously, Sojiro had bent over the borrower, his shadow darkening the small figure. Akira on the other hand had lost all submissiveness. He’d closed the distance between the two, standing almost directly underneath the human’s face.

“In the open? Like normal people do?” Sojiro’s tone suggested that this was not a question. 

Slowly Akira’s face showed a new emotion: betrayal. “I knew it.” He hissed between gritted teeth. “You just wanted to keep me as a pet!” He turned around to flee but tripped over his own feet at the sight of the human’s giant hands still around him.

“Sojiro? Are you in there?”

Suddenly the kitchen door was opened. Sojiro quickly turned around and cupped his hands over Akira behind his back. The borrower went completely limp.

“Futaba?” Sojiro almost couldn’t believe it. He hadn’t seen her in days. Had it not been for the food in the fridge going missing he’d even doubted that she was still here. “What’s the matter?”

The girl came a few steps towards him before stopping again. “ I heard you shouting. Is… is he…” She fell silent and took a look around the room. 

Sojiro felt like someone had punched him in the gut. He had had a few unpleasant phone calls with her “family” in the past, but that stopped once he showed them some money. Of course she’d notice that. “No, no. It’s all okay. I just got a call from a very persistent telemarketing firm. Sorry I bothered you.”

“Okay then…” Sojiro watched as Futaba just stood there, avoiding his eyes. Akira was apparently fed up with being squished and started moving underneath the man’s palms.

“Anything I can do for you?” Sojiro blurted out as he felt the borrower. Classic customer service panic reaction. Good job.

Futaba flinched at that. “Uh- No I just needed some chips. Forgot to grab some while you were gone.” She mumbled and made her way toward the cabinets.

Sojiro leaned in trying to hide the struggling borrower from her. “You know, I could cook you something quick too. Maybe some curry-“

With a loud bang the cabinet door was smashed shut. Futaba stood before him, trembling, clutching several bags of chips.

“No thanks” she grunted before darting out of the room. Sojiro heard her quick footsteps ascend the stairs before the muted sound of her door being smashed shut sounded through the house. He sighed, disappointed at himself. 

His hands were empty. Sojiro had been so distracted by Futaba that he didn’t even feel Akira slip out of his grasp. As he turned around there was no trace of the borrower. Or was there?  
Sojiro placed his hand on the outlet and easily pulled it out of the wall. “Shit.”

 

The first night Akira simply ran as far as he could in the complete darkness that surrounded him.

Mentally he restructured his to-do list. Shelter. Light. Water. Access. Sojiro probably figured out that he cracked open the electricity outlet, so Akira wasn’t sure if that was still safe. Soon enough he reached a wall in the hollow space. Dead end.

By now his eyes had adjusted as best as possible to the darkness, and although borrowers could see better than humans in this environment, without any source of light he still could only distinguish shadows from darker shadows. He used his other senses to examine the place. His fingers inspected the rough walls of the insulation, not a crack could be felt. In the end, he decided to camp here for a few hours and wait until the humans would be asleep, then try the entrance through the outlet and borrow a few essentials. 

Apparently he underestimated his own exhaustion. By the time he woke up and made it back to his entrance point, the kitchen was lit up by the blinding light of the sun. At first the borrower feared it was a trap and quickly returned back into the wall. After a few seconds of listening for any suspicious sounds he gave it another try. The daylight was blinding him at first and after spending the night in complete darkness he needed a few minutes to get used to it.

As Akira exited his hiding spot and took a look around, he noticed that there was a small plate on the counter between the outlet and the sink. The borrower inspected it carefully. It was a plate of curry covered in plastic wrap. Next to it was a note from Sojiro that claimed that the man was sorry and which invited Akira to take what he needed.

The boy turned around and ignored the food. He ran towards the sink instead and with some effort he turned it up enough to get a few droplets out of the tap. Akira hadn't even realized how thirsty he was. He turned the faucet off again after filling both his belly and his water skin. Akira was hungry too, but he didn't even consider touching the dish behind him. Interacting with humans never ends well. He should have listened to what his parents had told him.

His parents. Akira felt guilty once more. After all, he was the reason they had been discovered and had had to split up. If he hadn't been so careless, they'd still want him as a son.

Then he remembered what Sojiro had said. For the first time in his life, someone had valued him. Sojiro had cussed out his parents and promised to protect him. 

Was it really just a trick? The human had kept his promise of not telling his daughter (as far as Akira knew). Maybe the borrower should try to talk with him once more?

Akira shook his head. Not now. He was still not sure what was going on with Sojiro and Futaba. The borrower decided to keep a profile so low, nobody would know he was there and would instead try to find out more about the humans without their knowledge.

The borrower focused on his survival once more. There wasn't any open food on the counter, so Akira figured he might try the trash. Last night he couldn't see the girl coming in, but he heard her disappear with approximately a few plastic bags, probably fast food. Maybe she had disposed of them somewhere around here and left some crumbs for him.

Akira scanned the rest of the kitchen, looking for the waste bin. Instead his eyes fell upon a plastic bowl with brown kibbles in it. Food. Cat food. 

The borrower contemplated the risk once more. Sojiro didn't say anything about a cat. This was dangerous. But at the very same, oh so simple. Akira couldn't spot a cat in the room, so maybe it wasn't here right now. His stomach gurgled. Time to make a decision.

The string he had was just enough to reach the floor, but not all the way to the bottom. Akira tried to land as silently as he could. No sounds were heard in the house. He darted towards the cat bowl, his backpack already open and hanging half off his shoulder, dug his arms all the way into the kibbles, and shoved as much as he could into the backpack and ran back to the string.

He was halfway up the rope when he realized that there was a sound in the house. 

Footsteps. 

Coming closer.

Akira tried to keep calm and climb as fast as he could. The door was opened and he just barely managed to jump behind the bread box as he heard the kitchen door open. The person was approaching him and stopped right in front of his hiding spot. Akira waited with bated breath for what would come next. His hideout would be torn away and he would be revealed.

But nothing happened. The borrower waited and waited, but nothing happened. Akira was confused. He carefully looked around the bread box and laid eyes on Futaba Sakura for the first time.

She had long, orange hair, huge glasses that didn't quite fit her face, and was wearing dark pajamas. Akira ducked back into the shadows as she was leaning over him, but instead of taking away his cover, the girl stretched to reach the cupboards above him and the borrower could hear the familiar crinkling sound of plastic chips bags again. Then she was gone, as fast as she came.

Akira waited there for a few minutes, to make sure she was gone and wouldn't suddenly come back. When he was sure it was safe, the borrower dashed to the outlet and was gone in a flash

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was actually pretty fun to write. Let me know what you think 😘

**Author's Note:**

> So far I'm leaving this as a single chapter. I do have ideas of how to proceed, but I'm not sure if I can actually bring myself to keep on working on this. In that case I might post some drabbles instead.  
> If you liked this, please leave a comment!  
> I also have some other ideas for P5 g/t. Mostly borrower stuff, but if you're interested in a certain dynamic and/or scenario, let me know and it might inspire my creative spirits lol ;P


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